You can be forgiven for forgetting the name of that new acquaintance just minutes after you've been introduced, according to memory experts at University of Sussex.
Scientists revealed that while memories can be recalled several hours after learning them, they are inaccessible to us for a period.
Although it is not fully understood why such lapses happen, it is believed to be because they are a necessary part of the brain's process to avoid overloading with information.
What's your name again? Try as you might, information like a person's name takes several hours to be consolidated in the brain
University of Sussex neuroscientists said that any disturbances during these memory lapses disrupt the process and stop memories being formed.
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One of the experts, Dr Ildiko Kemenes, said: 'Scientists have long wondered why the brain shows these memory lapses.
'Memory formation is an energy-consuming process.
'The brain would need to decide if it was worth expending energy for the consolidation of that particular memory.
'The brain has a restricted capacity to learn things and preventing some memory formation would be a way to avoid overload.'
In his research, Dr Kemenes introduced an unknown substance to snails' diets to see if they would learn to recognise it as food.
When they were fed again, scientists found the snails responded to the stimulus, with memory lapses after 30 minutes and two hours, before the memory became consolidated at about four hours.
But if the snail received another different stimulus during the memory-lapse periods, the memory consolidation became disrupted, it was discovered.